Undercover Boss

Definitely not a useless 1 star show. This shows broke some ground and illustrates just how clueless CEOs are about their company. You see some CEO put on a very fake wig then walk into a store and discover that the store doesn't sell the products he thinks they sell or that there is a lot of broken stuff everywhere making the job harder. How did the CEO not know this? How can you lead a company and not understand extremely basic things about you core product? Well, CEOs just don't care it seems. They look at bottom lines. If they cared this show would make no sense. Anyone, like me, who has worked in a store knows how this works so I'm surpriced these CEOs don't. There is some extremely basic stuff they don't get.

Is it fake? Kinda yeah, some of the disguises are wicked fake. The mustaches always look fake. It's like a cartoon where a character just puts on a fake mask and everyone falls for it. Don't get me started on the super fake plastic masks they use in some episodes. No one with eyes would fall for this. Not happening. Of course the people often act like they are clueless. But then if they know the show they'd know what to do. This random stranger comes in with TV cameras following him. You know of very few such shows in companies and Undercover Boss is your first guess. At any rate you know what can happen. You either reveal his identity or you act clueless and "randomly" tell him about your "super sad life story". You wait for the show to end the CEO gives you a week off plus $50K and a promotion to management. Curious how these promotions work. The CEO talks to you and days later you are in management. No test, no CV sent anywhere, no skill assessment by local management, no extra training. Nope, CEO just promotes a person to manager after talking to them for a few hours. You play along because this is a great outcome. You act like you fell for the ridiculously fake mustache to gain this promotion. In other episodes the people clearly did fall for the disguise as they break a ton of rules and act rude. In one episode an attractive chick keeps acting like a spoiled queen even on camera. Shouting as customers, mocking the disguised CEO. She ends up being fired after she just digs her hole deeper during the post undercover interview. People who call this show fake are not lying. But about 20% of it is real enough. I mean, people know the cameras are there and act accordingly most of the time anyhow. And mostly they know how the CEO looks like so they may not be totally clueless. But a part of them never fully solve what is going on. At any rate even those episodes are not good. But you get a view into how a company works and produces money which is fun enough.

I think my biggest disgust is with how easily the CEO throws money at these people. You have some people work really hard 10 hours a day for under $300 a week. Or other people who have not gotten time off for years. Cleaners who work really hard and never complain. Single mothers living in homeless shelters for years as the wages are not high enough. Then the CEO does this show and splashes them with cash. $25K for you. $50K for you. Is the CEO a good guy? What about improving their store or increasing wages? Why are you giving 1 random lucky person $50K? You could use this money to increase wages in a full store or plant. Or fix that one thing everyone is complaining about that would cost $5K to fix but increase productivity by 5%. These CEOs have waaaaay too much money and spend it like young athletes. It's not serious. They are not trying to fix things they are trying to make themselves look good. You can have an employee who is 5 times more overlooked just nearby still being overlooked and this person who was on the show with the CEO is getting rich instead. How is this fair? It's picking winners and losers based on who you like. This person is now the richest person around, moved up to management. A harder worker who was supposed to be the next manager is getting the short end of the stick as that person was not on the show. And nothing in the store is fixed.

Why does a reality show need a casting director? That should tell you everything you need to know.

I had friend who was one of the workers on an episode in past so I know first hand the things given away at end are real. However even he told me that him and others already knew what was going on. Put that all aside though its still an entertaining show with emotional message.

This show is obviously completely scripted and fake! People show up around your work with a bunch of cameras filming you and this new guy and you tell him that you cut corners, that you hit of female customers, that you do crappy work.. don't think so. Then all of the employees will share their lifestyles with this stranger? on camera? don't think so.

Plus there is an obvious pattern on the few episodes I watched before I declared it "junk".

My opinion is that this is another show made by the corporate enterprise to make people think that if they work hard they will get recognized and rewarded... give them hope and they work more efficient.

It's curious to see the interplay between the high-flying bosses and the enthusiastic junior employees. Often the bosses are unfit to do the jobs and often they are just going about the motions, not even pretending to be worried that their menial job is on the line.

I don't know whether to blame the show or the culture of North America, but I find it distasteful when the bosses reveal themselves and give out gifts at the end. Having a CEO tell you that you did a really good job should feel special; that's all that really needs to happen. Instead, they want to out-do Oprah and give employees holidays, cars etc. I once even saw one of these bosses give a worker 2 promotions. How does one keep morale in the rest of the team when they know that just because the boss stumbled across this guy, he got promoted from under them to above them?

The problems revealed are often along the lines of "yeah, this has been a problem for a while, but management doesn't care". Going undercover shouldn't really be necessary for that kind of problem.